Ukraine rivals go head to head

UKRAINE'S presidential rivals launched a live nationally-televised debate in the capital Kiev today, less than a week ahead of an historic repeat election ordered after their previous contest at the ballot box was ruled fraudulent and thrown out. The debate kicked off at 7pm local time (4am AEDT) and was to last about two hours. Viktor Yanukovich, the country's prime minister who took leave of absence for the campaign, and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko were each being given five minutes for opening statements and five minutes for closing remarks. The intervening 80 minutes, the bulk of the debate, were to consist of a question-answer session, with each candidate permitted one minute to ask a question and the other three minutes to respond, with a moderator keeping time. The debate, the only scheduled face-to-face discussion between the bitter rivals in the runup to the election on Sunday, was being broadcast on the state UT-1 network.